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Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey told county commissioners that his proposed budget is "reasonable and necessary for the safe and efficient operation of the Sheriff's Office. As we are all aware, the public safety needs of our citizens should always be the first priority of government."(Photo: MALCOLM DENEMARK/FLORIDA TODAY)

Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey on Tuesday will make his pitch to county commissioners to increase a law enforcement tax rate, as a way to help fund school guardians, better wages for deputies, and upgraded equipment and police cars.

If commissioners agree with his appeal, then approve the proposed 2019-20 county budget in September that includes the Sheriff's Office component, they would exceed a voter-approved cap on a property tax collected for law enforcement.

Ivey cites in his request such things as increase school security requirements; relatively low pay and resulting high turnover for deputies; and a need to replace older vehicles and other equipment.

Under county rules, Ivey would need four out of the five commissioners to go along with his request to declare a "finding of critical needs."

One commissioner, John Tobia, told FLORIDA TODAY that he would vote against the critical needs request, saying that the county should have reworked the budget plan, and cut expenses elsewhere, if it wanted to give the sheriff more money for public safety.

"It is disingenuous and lazy for the board to declare a critical need, while foolishly spending money on dinosaur museums, dance studios and Art in Public Places," Tobia said, referring to recent spending in other portions in the county budget.

The other four county commissioners and Ivey did not respond to FLORIDA TODAY requests for comment.

At issue is the "Law Enforcement Municipal Service Taxing Unit" tax that is paid by residents of unincorporated Brevard County, as well as residents of Grant-Valeria, Malabar and Palm Shores, towns in which the Brevard County Sheriff's Office provides law enforcement services. That property tax component — which county officials generally refer to as an MSTU — was billed for a total of 153,283 property accounts in the current budget year, according to data provided by the Brevard County Tax Collector's Office.

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Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey says that among the results of his department's budgetary constraints is being forced to reduce the number of vehicle replacements. Based on the current replacement model, the agency has a deficit of 280 replacement vehicles of the 850-vehicle fleet, which increases maintenance and repair costs.(Photo: MALCOLM DENEMARK/FLORIDA TODAY F)

Among the issues Ivey has cited for his budget request:

• Costs related to increased school security stemming from the state's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act, which required an increase in school resource deputies at Brevard schools, with related equipment and vehicle costs.

• Challenges in recruitment and retention of deputies, due to non-competitive starting pay, compared with other police agencies in Brevard and nearby counties.

The proposed county budget for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1 includes an increase in the Law Enforcement MSTU tax rate of 2.17 cents per $1,000 of taxable property value, with the tax rate going from $1.0925 per $1,000 in the current 2018-19 budget year to $1.1142 per $1,000 proposed for the 2019-20 budget year.

While the tax rate increase is relatively small, it is the only one of the 20 operating tax rates that would increase under County Manager Frank Abbate's proposed budget, which he released a week ago. It would result in a $1.77 million or 9.44 percent increase in tax revenue generated by the MSTU portion of the sheriff's budget, bringing the total to $20.47 million.

To have stayed within the provisions of the so-called "charter cap," the sheriff's MSTU tax rate would have had to drop to $1.0629 per $1,000, generating revenue of $19.52 million, when increases in property values, including new construction, during the last year are taken into account. The charter cap is based on a formula that ties increases in property tax revenue to increases in the Consumer Price Index.

Tobia said he will vote against the "critical needs" declaration because he believes in the charter cap, which was approved in the 2008 election, with the support of 73.1% of Brevard voters casting ballots on that county charter amendment.

Despite his no vote, Tobia said, he is "quite confident" Ivey "is getting what he asked for" in his budget request, with the support of the other four commissioners.

Among Tobia's concerns, he said, are that:

• Other county departments might not be getting all the property tax revenue they could have because the Law Enforcement MSTU tax rate exceeded the charter cap.

• If county commissioners approve the proposed Law Enforcement MSTU tax rate, that will become the base rate for changes the 2020-21 budget, rather than being a one-year increase.

That's also an issue with Brevard County Clerk of Courts Scott Ellis, who plans to bring that concern to county commissioners at a future meeting.

Ellis believes that, as a general rule, if there is a critical need that requires a tax rate increase in one budget year, that doesn't necessarily mean the critical need is there in the following year.

"That just defeats the purpose" of a declaration of critical need, Ellis contends.

Ellis' view, however, is in conflict with a 2017 legal opinion from then-County Attorney Scott Knox, which says the new tax rate approved by a finding of critical need establishes the baseline for the subsequent year.

Abbate said he and the county's budget director met with Ivey three or four times in recent months concerning the sheriff's budget request.

Abbate emphasized that "this is definitely" the sheriff's proposal, and Ivey will be the one presenting it to county commissioners on Tuesday.

The overall county budget proposal that Abbate released last week retains or increases current service to residents, so the sheriff's budget request did not mean specific cuts elsewhere, Abbate said.

But, Abbate added, if he had more money for the overall county budget, he would have proposed using it for such things as additional road repair projects or other infrastructure improvements.

Except for the Law Enforcement MSTU, all 20 individual operating taxing district tax rates would fall within the provisions of the charter cap that ties the maximum amount of money raised through property taxes to increases in the Consumer Price Index, which was 2.44% in the latest budget year. This limit excludes property tax revenue associated with new construction.

The overall proposed Brevard County Sheriff's Office budget for 2019-20 that Ivey submitted is $136.11 million — which is about 10.4% of the overall county budget of $1.31 billion. That compares with an amended 2018-19 BCSO budget of $134.06 million.

The sheriff's proposed budget includes six broad categories: law enforcement money coming from the county's general fund; law enforcement money from the Law Enforcement MSTU; county jail complex; judicial operation; animal services; and contracted services for law enforcement to Cape Canaveral and Port Canaveral, which is funded by those entities.

Ivey defended his budget request in a letter to county commissioners that was submitted with his proposal.

"It is my responsibility to certify and deliver to you a budget that I believe to be

reasonable and necessary for the safe and efficient operation of the Sheriff s Office," Ivey wrote in a six-page letter dated May 31.

"I am confident that this budget submission is in the best interest of the citizens of Brevard County and fully meets the requirements of my obligation," Ivey wrote. "As we are all aware, the public safety needs of our citizens should always be the first priority of government. Ensuring that Brevard County is a safe community is an essential responsibility that we all share as community leaders."

As early as a Feb. 21 county budget workshop, Ivey and Greg Pelham, who at the time was the Brevard County Sheriff's Office's chief financial officer, detailed for county commissioners their concerns about the BCSO budget. Among them, the relatively low pay for starting deputies and what they believe was a shortage in the total number of deputies on the street, based on a guideline in the county's comprehensive plan of having two deputies per 1,000 residents in the areas they cover.

Then, on April 9, toward the end of a 6½-hour evening meeting of the County Commission, Vice Chair Bryan Lober brought up an item in his commissioner reports that wasn't on the agenda.

Lober wanted commissioners to authorize Abbate to prepare the proposed county budget with multiple options for setting the tax rate to help accommodate the sheriff's funding needs. Lober emphasize that, while his motion is not an indication that the County Commission wants to raise taxes, he wants to keep its options open.

That motion was approved 4-1, with Tobia voting no.

It turned out that Abbate didn't have to provide multiple options that include what would be considered a tax increase in the general fund. Because of a 7.91% increase in the property values in the county — which helps generate more property tax revenue for the county — tax rates would go down in all of the operating tax districts, except the Law Enforcement MSTU, under Abbate's budget plan.

Additionally, Ivey cut about $300,000 from his initial budget request.